Industrial centre · Scenic area · Cultural centre · Hubei
Shiyan
十堰
Car city below the Daoist Wudang Mountains
Shiyan is a prefecture-level city in north-western Hubei, built from the late 1960s around the Second Automobile Works, today's Dongfeng Motor. Its territory includes the Wudang Mountains, one of the sacred mountains of Daoism and a World Heritage site, and the Danjiangkou Reservoir, source of the middle route of the South–North Water Diversion.
Key facts
Overview
Shiyan was a small mountain settlement until 1969, when the state chose its valleys for the Second Automobile Works as part of the Third Front programme of moving industry inland. Plants were spread along side valleys, and the city grew in a long ribbon between the hills.
The prefecture is also a place of great age and sanctity: fossil hominin skulls around a million years old were found in Yunxian, and the Wudang Mountains to the south-east have been a Daoist centre for more than a thousand years.
Names and nicknames
车城
“Car City”
From the Dongfeng truck works around which the city was built.
History
The Han valley around Shiyan was a frontier between Chu, Qin and Ba. Fang county was a place of exile for Tang princes, including the deposed Emperor Zhongzong. Wudang was lavishly rebuilt by the Yongle Emperor from 1412 as a sanctuary of the Perfected Warrior, the Daoist deity to whom he attributed his rise. The Danjiangkou Dam was built from 1958 and raised in the 2000s; since 2014 its water has flowed north to Beijing and Tianjin.
1989 and 1990
Yunxian skulls
Two hominin skulls around a million years old were found by the Han River; a third was found in 2022.
684
Emperor Zhongzong exiled to Fangzhou
Deposed by his mother Wu Zetian, he spent fourteen years in Fang county before being recalled.
1412–1424
Imperial building on Wudang
The Yongle Emperor's programme created the palace and temple complex inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1994.
1969
Second Automobile Works founded
The truck factory, renamed Dongfeng in 1992, turned Shiyan into a city.
2014
South–North Water Diversion middle route opens
Water from the Danjiangkou Reservoir began flowing north by canal to Henan, Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin.
Landmarks
Temple or shrine
Golden Hall of Wudang
武当山金殿
Gilded bronze hall of 1416 on Tianzhu Peak (1,612 m), the summit of the Wudang Mountains.
Temple or shrine
Purple Heaven Palace
紫霄宫
The best-preserved of the large Ming palaces on the mountain, with an active Daoist community.
Temple or shrine
Nanyan Palace
南岩宫
Temple built into a cliff face, with the carved Dragon Head Incense Burner projecting over the drop.
Nature
Danjiangkou Reservoir
丹江口水库
Large reservoir on the Han and Dan rivers, straddling the border with Henan.
Neighbourhoods
Wudangshan
武当山特区
The town at the foot of the mountain, with Yuxu Palace and martial-arts schools.
Food
Fang county rice wine
房县黄酒
Cloudy, sweet rice wine brewed in homes across Fang county.
Wudang tea
武当道茶
Green tea grown on the slopes around the Daoist mountain.
Culture
Wudang is the home of the martial arts known as Wudang boxing (武当武术), traditionally attributed to the Daoist Zhang Sanfeng and associated with internal styles such as taijiquan; many schools at the foot of the mountain teach them. The Daoist music of Wudang, performed at rituals, is on China's national intangible heritage list.
Getting around
- Shiyan East and Wudangshan West stations lie on the high-speed line from Wuhan via Xiangyang.
- Shiyan Wudangshan Airport serves domestic routes.
- Buses inside the Wudang scenic area link the main palaces; a cable car climbs towards the Golden Summit.
Day trips
Yunyang
郧阳
District on the Han River with the Yunxian Man site and dinosaur-egg fossil beds.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Shiyan Municipal People's Government — Shiyan Municipal People's Government (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- Seventh National Population Census communiqués — National Bureau of Statistics of China (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains — UNESCO World Heritage Centre (retrieved 27 September 2026)
More cities in Hubei
- Wuhan武汉Capital · Historic city · Industrial centreThree river towns at the meeting of the Yangtze and the Han
- Yichang宜昌Historic city · Industrial centre · Scenic areaGateway to the Three Gorges and site of the great dam
- Jingzhou荆州Historic city · Cultural centreWalled city on the Yangtze beside the ancient Chu capital
- Xiangyang襄阳Historic city · Industrial centreMoated fortress city on the Han River